Dynamic Logos

Nowadays, a new wave of creation of corporate identity is growing… The age of static logotypes may has finished, it’s the new era for dynamic logos, here the image can be changed, can move… but, nevertheless, still maintain themselves identity that characterizes them. In this post I’ll show three brands to use as example that what I’m talking about, three brand that use a dynamic logotype. Each one’s of them are performed, created and developed differently. But all are dynamic logos in their own way.

01 // MIT Media Lab [corporate identity]

“The new visual identity of the MIT Media Lab is inspired by the community it comprises: Highly creative people from all kinds of backgrounds come together, inspire each other and collaboratively develop a vision of the future.

This unique offering of the MIT Media Lab is reflected in the logo design. Each of the three shapes stands for one individual’s contribution, the resulting shape represents the outcome of this process: A constant redefinition of what media and technology means today. The logo is based on a visual system, an algorithm that produces a unique logo for each person, for faculty, staff and students. […] A custom web interface was developed to allow each person at the Media Lab to choose and claim an own individual logo for his/her business card, as well as a custom animation so? Ware which allows to create custom animations for any video content the lab produces.” » TheGreenEyl

This Company was founded in 1985 by Professor Nicholas Negroponte and Jerome Wiesner. The MIT Media Lab is one of the world’s most renown research and development centers. Funded by corporate sponsorship, the Media Lab counted with a $26 million budget in 2009 – 10 and served 138 graduate students and 28 faculty and principal investigators.

With the facility’s expansion in 2010, it was necessary a new corporate identity who transmitted the “manifests the spirit of transparency, mutual inspiration and collaboration” of MIT Media Lab. So the new identity was born from three squares as an intersecting spotlights of colors, that generates, through an custom algorithmic system, randomly, more than 40,000 logo shapes in 12 different color combinations, who that gives an estimated 25 years’ worth of personalized business cards.

“This is a comprehensive identity for Casa da Musica, the Rem Kohlhaas designed music center in the harbor town of Porto in Portugal. Our initial desire to design an identity without featuring the building proofed impossible because as we studied the structure, we realized that the building itself is a logo. Kohlhaas calls this “the organization of issues of symbolism”. Really. But we did try to avoid another rendering of a building by developing a system where this recognizable, unique, modern form transforms itself like a chameleon from application to application, changes from media to media where the physical building itself is the ultimate (very high-res) rendering in a long line of logos. Our goal was to show the many different kinds of music performed in one house. Depending on the music it is filled with the house changes its character and works dice-like by displaying different views and facets of music.” » Stefan Sagmeister

Sagmeister, used the building as a visual source, created this dynamic logotype, as a faceted and endlessly varied identity in order to heighten the colour of the logo. The form of the building is the principal graphic element of the final visual approach and contextual syntax of the identity system. For this, was necessary created a graphic view of the building, from different views of the building.

After created a graphic view of the building as a three dimensional form, it was then converted into six different logo marks comprising the top, bottom, north, south, east and west views of the building. Each of these marks act as a flat representation of the building, a series of simple yet irregular forms

With this three dimensional representation created, was developed a device to illustrate various meanings contingent on their context. The customised software program, The Casa de Musica Logo Generator, provides a seemingly infinite amount of chromatic variation based on the immediate context in which the logos are viewed. Through the different views of the building (17 facets that were defined) the system creates 17 points color-picking from an image, that can be adjustable, to further enhance the flexibility of the identity, so the logo can be used in a scary number of freeing ways. The process makes with which there a harmonious relationship among logo and image.

The Casa de Musica Logo Generator

With the 17 points color-picking referenced on the image, these colours picketed are transferred onto the surface of the logo, creating a chromatic representation of the painting as a semantic layer on top of the object.

03 // EDP [corporate identity]

The EDP is the main Portuguese company in the energy sector and one of the world’s fastest growing developers of wind energy. Has presence in Spain, Brazil, and the U.S. with more than 12,000 employees worldwide.

For the celebration of 35th years of existence, the EDP wants to solemnize this occasion with the entry of a new visual identity. For this was proposed at Stefan Sagmeister to develop the new corporate identity for the company.
The main points of this new indentity are the four fundamental shapes (a circle, half circle, square and a triangle) that combined on layered, builds 85 unique edp logos, resulting in a modular identity which is transparent, innovative, customizable, and can evolve over time. This project count with the creative collaboration, for the animation, of the Brand New School, to do a fun animation to promote the new brand.

” In a seamless creative collaboration, we injected personality and character into hundreds of icons, illustrations and characters, creating a world based entirely off of four simple geometric shapes: square, circle, right triangle and half circle. The pleasure was all ours in seeing a brilliant system come to life as we animated this whimsical visual story of clean energy and planetary harmony.” » Brand New School

The resulting shapes and shades are interesting and the soft shadow underneath makes it look like it’s floating and to give it some dimension.

Tiago is a graphic designer from Portugal. He was an intern at Ralev.com brand design agency.